My HiME
by The USS Ficcelsior
Summary: While I was busy fixing Destiny I figured I'd go back and fix this show, too.
1. Aquarius

" _Behind a veil of riches and reason, lies a mystery hidden from view, killing all that get in its way."_

\- Movie trailer announcer guy, _Brotherhood of the Wolf_

* * *

NAGI HAD BEGUN HIS SCHEME TO SET THE HIME AGAINST EACH OTHER, BUT MASHIRO STILL HAD A SCHEME OF HER OWN TO STOP HIM IN HIS TRACKS.

She was lying in her luxurious bed staring blankly up at the ceiling. Decades of remorse hung over her head. Would they believe her when she told them this didn't have to be their fate? Would they listen to her when she offered a more peaceful way out? What if they doubted her more than Nagi? She could stop this massacre before it started, but it all depended on her allowing Nagi and his black king to think she was still on their side.

Crashing thunder caused the whole bedroom to rattle. The midnight storm was getting worse, with flashes of lighting that seemed to punctuate each moment when Mashiro started to second guess her own thoughts. Outside of her fairy tale bedroom, the steeple of the school church stood up against the bright silver glow of the full moon, casting the shadow of a long black crucifix through her window. The only thing that glowed as brightly as the moon was the twinkling red HiME star just beside it.

A violent gust of wind blew the ornate balcony doors out of their hinges. Standing just outside her room, against a blinding flash of lightning, was the outline of a four-legged Child creeping low to the ground. It uttered a low, mechanical growl through its gleaming jaws. Its metal armor glowed dimly in the storm, colored like the boundary of an eclipse.

The beast's paws made the sound of rattling chains as it prowled into Mashiro's room. As it brushed through the rain-soaked curtains decorating the door frame, she could see it leave something ragged and pink in its path.

Fumi was dead. She had been mauled so quickly between the lightning strikes that she didn't even have time to scream. And with Fumi dead, Mashiro realized her own artificial body had lost its only source of power. She was paralyzed in her bed and could only watch as Death slowly loomed toward her. Her painful memories of the previous tournament made her recognize the beast in an instant, and she knew what its presence meant.

How could she have been so wrong? She thought she knew what Obsidian Lord was plotting. She thought Nagi had been reckless enough to put all of his cards on the table. Instead, they had been one step ahead of her from the beginning. Now, seeing the truth lingering before her terrified eyes as it bared its iron fangs, she couldn't believe she had been so foolish not to suspect it sooner.

The beast crouched low like a wolf hunting a rabbit, and lunged straight for her bed.


	2. Pisces

YUKINO TRAILED MAI INTO THE FOREST WITH DARK INTENTIONS SWIRLING THROUGH HER MIND. Nagi's taunting voice echoed in her head.

" _All you have to do is fight each other's Childs. It's not like you're murdering each other with your bare hands."_

With Yukino's regard for human life and fully knowing the consequences for defeating another HiME's Child, though, those two actions might as well be one and the same. Except for when it came to Mai.

Yukino tried her hardest to convince herself it didn't have to come to this, that Nagi's threats of planetary destruction could just be blown off and they could all find a way to fight side by side. But that was all before the headmistress and her maid turned up as a pair of mutilated corpses in Fuuka Academy's executive suite.

The idea wasn't _too_ insane. The main suspect behind the attacks, Natsuki, had vanished without a trace as soon as the body count started stacking up, so eliminating the second biggest source of everyone's anxiety would be the next best thing to make everything normal again. Sadly for Mai, that second source of anxiety happened to be her, and the unimaginable threat she created as the keeper of a Child who could incinerate everyone in its path with the blink of an eye.

It was three months ago all over again, when Akane and her boyfriend disappeared. The rumors whispered around the academy said they must have confessed their feelings for one another and eloped before anyone could break them apart. Yukino wondered if the truth was that innocent, however. It was more likely that they had been Duran's first victims and their bodies were simply never found, if anything remained of them at all. The notion that a cold-blooded killer like Natsuki had been sitting beside her in class this entire time sent a chill up her spine, but Natsuki was the only one who could have done it. The types of wounds found on the victims, the stealthy nature of the attacks, and Natsuki's own distant nature. It all pointed to being her doing.

Yukino watched every solemn, almost vacant move Mai made as she walked through the park alone, hopelessly lost in her emotions. Invisible spores in the air recorded Mai walking, while Diana's seismic analyzers buried deep under her feet calculated where she was going. The neon glow of the Child's mirror-monitors reflected off Yukino's glasses as she carefully stalked Mai. She could strike at any moment, and Mai would never see it coming.

Poor Mai. Her sickly brother was getting worse by the day, and she was struggling to support him as much as herself. This wasn't even considering she had just been told that her HiME powers, the one thing that gave her hope, were a tool of destruction and her only option was to fight her friends to the death. She was still pushing herself to appear courageous and optimistic when she was with them, but once she was left by herself, she became a completely different person.

Takumi's diagnosis had been one of the worst possible. A form of leukemia that only had a 5% success rate. Statistically speaking, his infected circulatory system was going to fail completely and he'd be dead in a matter of weeks. If Yukino killed Mai right now, it's not like her spirit would be alone for very long.

It would only take a second. Diana's vines would pop out from under Mai's feet and everything could be over in a single pin prick. The fast-acting poison in Diana's thorns would bring her a merciful death. A tiny poke to the neck and Mai would drop over dead in under a minute. Yukino could make sure the vines punctured all of the major organs to speed up the effects even faster.

Yukino swallowed her remorse, and pointed.

The ground behind Mai's heels rustled gently, but she was so lost in her silent misery that she didn't even notice. She continued walking as a cluster of vines grew several feet up behind her, moving at the same speed as her. The tip of one stem opened up to reveal a single metal needle dripping with synthetic toxins. All it had to do was lunge a few inches at the back of Mai's neck and bring her to a swift end before she even knew what was stinging her.

Yukino waited, waited, thought about the horrible thing she was about to do, and waited.

She couldn't do it. The vines receded back into the earth as silently as they had emerged, and Mai had no idea they were ever there. Yukino left the forest with her head buried in her palms, sobbing in moral defeat.

In the branches of a dense tree that grew high above the others, a figure watched the entire drama unfold with a pair of binoculars. Natsuki lowered the high-powered lenses to reveal her face, a bitter half-frown curled across her lips.

Static chimed in her ear. The speaker was inaudible to anyone but her, but whatever they were saying left her unmoved. She replied coldly into a tiny transceiver on her wrist.

"No, this doesn't change anything. Operation Ragnarok proceeds as scheduled."


	3. Aries

MIDORI'S OBSESSIVE RESEARCH WAS MAKING HER THINK SHE WAS GETTING CLOSER TO THE TRUTH AND WANDERING FURTHER AWAY AT THE SAME TIME. The morgue photos of the two victims—which made her feel more regretful every second she had to look at them—were as much an answer as they were another mystery. They were found in the same brutalized condition, with their throats torn out and wolf claws maiming their bodies. But something was catching Midori's eye.

Those lacerations. The majority of them clearly came from a single species of Child, but for every three rows of claw slashes, there seemed to be another row crisscrossing over them. The size and curvature was just slightly different, as if another beast had taken second helpings after the first. Or did the smaller slashes come first, and the bigger ones were meant to obscure them? It couldn't be the angle of serration or a trick of the lighting. Midori was certain of it.

And then there were eye witness reports. The details were sketchy and there was plenty of cover-up going on, but the descriptions always sounded like Duran down a T, only if Duran was described by random half-drunk kids passing by the campus late at night and they had no idea what a Child was.

Yukariko's HiME ability was illusion. That would explain why witnesses only saw Duran by himself that night. But her illusions were always temporary. They couldn't leave permanent physical inconsistencies on the victim's bodies.

Could three different HiME be aligning themselves together to win the Festival?

Everything Midori could think of was meticulously circled and connected using student and academy personnel photos thrown on a bulletin board. She rapidly glanced back and forth between her convoluted diagram, photos and news bulletins she pulled up on her laptop, and back to her diagram. She had been stumped on the mystery for the past four hours, and she was growing more frustrated every second she wasted without getting closer to a working theory.

And then there was the Third Man Dilemma. If three murderous HiME were working together, who were the three men backing them? They would have to be male, unless one of the HiME had a thing for other girls. The first one had to be Nagi; there was just no way he couldn't be involved. The second one would be Ishigami pushing Yukariko's buttons. But who would the third one be? Figuring out the identity of the third HiME's partner could lead to a huge clue about the third HiME herself.

Mashiro had mentioned something about "The First District" to Midori right before she passed on, the name of the massive syndicate that plotted out and administered the Festival at every turn. Their cronies probably came a dime a dozen, but there were a few major suspects Midori could think of. There was Father Greer, the doofy old man priest who was obviously working undercover for _someone_. Or maybe Mikoto's creepy brother was hiding something…

Midori was so engrossed in her research that she never noticed something low and four-legged clawing its way up the fire escape outside her apartment window.

Who was paired with whom in this gruesome conspiracy? If Nagi _was_ involved, who would even be working with that sleazeball? Unless Midori's wildest fears turned out to be true and Mashiro had elaborately staged her own death as a way to take her involvement underground, Midori couldn't see any combination that made sense. Then again, unless there was a completely unknown HiME out there who could change her Child into other HiME's Childs, none of this made sense. Maybe there was only one murderess involved after all.

The sound of shattering glass caused Midori to slam her laptop screen and jump in her seat in terror. She turned to see the bloodthirsty Child—the same one that had claimed Mashiro and Fumi's lives—huddled on her broken window sill and baring its jagged fangs toward her.

Midori froze in her seat with a confused look on her face when she first saw the thing with her own eyes. She almost thought someone was playing a joke on her. But when the beast shifted its hind legs into an attack stance, she instantly got to her feet and summoned her Element to defend herself.

The beast came down from the window and charged into her apartment with the ferocity of a rhinoceros. Robotic claws sliced through the pole of Midori's halberd with ease and continued straight through her delicate neck, spraying her blood across the bulletin board. Midori fell backward clutching her throat in shock, with the beast landing directly on top of her. Midori's final moments ended with her killer biting down on her wound and snapping its head back, making tangled yarn out of her vocal chords.


	4. Taurus

AKIRA MET IN SECRET WITH THE REST OF HER CLAN. She was kneeling to the clan elder at the front of the ceremonial fire. Gennai sat behind her like a giant statue of a regal frog. Her fellow subordinates were bowing on her left and right as she reported her findings.

"Another has died. Butchered in her own home like the first two."

"And this Outsider you've been investigating, what do you believe are her motives?"

"To secure the blessing of the red star like the rest us, only she uses her Guardian to attack out of cowardice. She's perverting this ritual and turning it into her personal blood sport. HiME were destined to battle in the honorable way."

The elder stopped to scratch his chin, consumed in troubling thoughts. Akira could very well be right, but they had to act cautiously. A small slip in judgment could doom their entire peaceful clan.

"How certain are you your so-called Outsider is the one responsible for these deaths?" he asked. "You've already told me you suspect she's employed by a foreign power."

"There isn't a single doubt in my mind, father," Akira replied sternly. "Sightings of a large silver wolf have been seen immediately following both attacks. Some of the reports are coming in from our own shinobi. This filthy princess with her invading army is bringing a disgrace to our name."

"Then you have your orders," the elder said. "Eliminate this Outsider before she causes any more harm, and ensure this era's Festival is beneficial for all of us."

Akira bowed a final time before she left.


	5. Gemini

THE STEADY PINGING OF A HEART MONITOR CONSTANTLY REMINDED NAO WHY SHE HAD TO FIGHT. Her mother had been in the same hospital room lingering between life and death ever since the beating, and Nao had spent every free moment she had sitting here at the side of her bed. A gang of car robbers had mugged her and left her for dead in a parking lot, just because she wouldn't hand over her keys. At least she hadn't been mauled by someone's rabid pet wolf.

Three dead, with a lingering threat of more to come. Nao was actually surprised (and deep down, somewhat disappointed) she wasn't responsible for a single one of them.

Nao was broken out of her angry thoughts when she heard sheets rustling. The heart monitor was pinging more rapidly than she could ever remember. Her mother's eyes were glazed over, but it was the first time they had opened on their own in weeks.

Nao was shocked to hear her mother finally speak.

"A friend… came to visit…" the woman said in a raspy voice through her ventilator. One of her IV-covered arms moved slowly over the sheet. Nao wondered if her mother was trying to reach up for her, but then she saw she was simply moving her fingers a few inches to uncover something buried beneath her hand.

"She said she wanted you to have this…"

Nao's mother was clutching a tiny crumpled piece of paper against the bed. Nao took it out of her palm and unfolded it. Only five mysterious words were scribbled onto the paper, but they told Nao everything she needed to know.

 _Next full moon. Chapel. Midnight._

When Nao took her eyes off of the paper and looked at her mother again, she was already fast asleep. Her condition was so frail that it took every ounce of energy she had just to move her hand a few inches and speak for a couple of seconds. She'd become stronger with more rest.

Nao told the doctors about the miraculous improvement in her mother's health, then left the hospital in a rush.

From the adjacent rooftop, Natsuki watched as Nao walked out of the hospital entrance. She recorded the time log, then spoke quietly into her transceiver.

"Lone Wolf reporting. Tell Deputy Greer the message has been delivered."


	6. Cancer

THE HEART MONITOR WENT INTO FLATLINE, SENDING MAI INTO A SCREAMING FIT OF DESPAIR. She had been told this moment was coming, that there was nothing else that could be done, but she still couldn't accept it. The doctors with their low voices and their sunken faces had told her the leukemia had infected her brother's entire bloodstream, and now his heart was deteriorating by the minute.

Orderlies had to pull her out of the operating room wailing and shrieking so the doctors could make one last attempt to resuscitate Takumi. Their efforts were in vain.

* * *

The walk home that night was the longest and most sorrowful 20 minutes of Mai's life. The world had become an endless void to her. There was a sound in the air like a distant whistling wind, or a howling wolf.

She would pay for the funeral with the money she had saved up from her waitressing job, but then what? She felt hopelessly abandoned after losing everything close to her. She felt increasingly bitter for helping Shiho hook up with Yuuichi. She felt like a fool for believing she could brush all of her worries away by playing the hero, as if simply having a pet dragon would magically fix all of her personal problems.

Now she couldn't even use her powers to light a fire underneath a frying pan. Not when the one person she cared about the most, who had been the source of all of her special abilities, was dead. She felt like there was nothing left for her in this world.

Her parents were gone. Her brother was gone. All she had left was Mikoto's familiar face and slightly annoying eating habits, but how long was she still going to be around with the way this Festival was turning out?

The path home led through long rows of street lights stretching several miles, turning Mai's walk into a perpetual slog through alternating light and darkness. She stopped under one of the lamps and glanced toward the park bench on the sidewalk.

In another life, she could have been sitting on this very bench with Yuuichi. She would be spilling all of her emotions into his arms. He would be brushing her back and telling her everything was going to be okay, things were going to get better, in his usual klutzy but well-intentioned way. He would be there at her side giving her comfort, giving her closure.

Mai slammed her fist against the post, sobbing in frustration.

The beast was stalking Mai as she walked home from the hospital. A low, mechanical growl resonated from its ventilation chambers as it prowled, making the sound of iron hooves quietly falling against concrete with each step. It crouched forward, opened its jaws, and prepared to attack the unsuspecting former HiME from behind.

A hand appeared in front of the Child's armored face and signaled it to stay. Trembling, remorseful fingertips gently pet the beast on its forehead, calming its thirst for blood and convincing it to show a hint of mercy. The beast faded back into the shadows with its HiME, leaving Mai alone for good.


	7. Leo

" _With patience and cruelty, he trained the beast to be vicious."_

\- Thomas d'Apcher, _Brotherhood of the Wolf_

* * *

DESPITE ALL OF HER BRILLIANCE, NATSUKI'S MOTHER NEVER TAUGHT HER DAUGHTER HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS. The woman had been as passionate about raising Natsuki as she had been researching the history of the HiME Festivals and meticulously analyzing each Child, but an assassin from the First District had put her work to a tragic end while Natsuki was barely more than a toddler.

Natsuki was one of the few people alive who knew there was more than one clandestine political group at work behind the Festival. She could go on all night and day about secret plots of world domination, murderous corruption in God knows how many branches of Japan's government, and ancient alien conspiracies to restart the entire world from scratch, but who in their right mind would believe her? All she could do was stick to her mission: Ending this sick game as quickly as possible. Given her time frame and the competition she was going up against, she was doing a pretty decent job so far.

The next victim was on her way to the meeting place. Now it was time to get everyone else involved in the trap.

She had anonymously tipped off all of the active HiME she had been able to ID so far. Yukino, Akira, Shiho, and Mikoto were invited to the bloodbath through either simple notes left in their lockers or text messages sent through an untraceable proxy. What Natsuki never planned for was Yukino telling Mai about the arrangement and pleading with her to come along. Natsuki considered the motives as she reviewed the wiretap. Maybe Yukino did it out of regret. Maybe this was her way of helping Mai get closure. Mai had always been the one who insisted they should use their powers to band together and confront Nagi head-on, even after the bodies started turning up.

"Is something bothering you, Natsuki?"

Natsuki lifted her eyes from her phone in surprise. Shizuru was standing on the stone stair above her. It was late afternoon and they were only ones among the dry leaves covering the old Buddhist shrine. This was where Natsuki had been hiding since she became a fugitive.

"It's nothing. Just planning a get together with some of the girls tonight," Natsuki smiled innocently.

"Oh? And you didn't invite me?" Shizuru asked.

"Uhh…" Natsuki stumbled through her thoughts. "It's… not something you need to worry about. We figured you'd be busy dealing with student council stuff anyway."

Natsuki felt a surge of relief when Shizuru replied with a simple friendly "Oh, I suppose," and returned to sweeping the stairway. It would break Natsuki's heart if someone as kind and fragile Shizuru were ever harmed over something that had nothing to do with her.

* * *

Nao tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the inevitable. The chapel was nearly pitch black. All of the lights shut off. There wasn't a single candle burning. The only source of light in the whole building were the faint rays of moonlight wafting through a single window: a stained glass rendition of the Last Judgment.

Nao was more bored than nervous. She had her arms crossed with one hand tucked under her chin, tapping herself on the cheek just lightly enough so she wouldn't cut herself with her Element. A girl could find limitless uses for a set of magic knives on the ends of her fingers.

A large and four-legged outline emerged from the immaculate darkness. The featureless creature snarled at Nao, making a sound like a bear growling inside a metal drainage pipe. All of Nao's bravery and sarcasm melted away in a terrified instant.

The beast pounced. Julia descended from her hidden web up in the belfry and landed on top of it. The beast shook Nao's giant spider away and snapped at its legs. Gleaming silver claws clashed with titanium pinchers. Deadly fangs snapped against venom-injecting stingers. Child fought against Child, just as Nagi had promised. Nao tried to get in a few whacks of her own with her augmented nails, but she missed each time.

She was never getting closer to actually seeing _what_ was attacking her. She pictured a feral wolf starving for a nibble at her pretty little guts, but only Julia's thousands of compound infrared sensors would have gotten a clear view in the bleakness of the church.

Julia was thrashed by the beast's hind leg, sending her skittering through the pews. The beast turned its savage desires back toward Nao, and charged at full speed.

Something massive and round landed between them, surprising Nao and causing the beast to halt. It was Akira riding on the back of her giant frog.

Quivering vines burst out of the ground and formed a net around the beast. It tore out of the weeds and dashed in the opposite direction.

Nao turned to see Yukino commanding Diana behind her console of digital mirrors. A grief-stricken but determined Mai stood by her side.

Shiho chased the shadow of the beast on the back of her giant crow. Mikoto ran parallel to her on the ground, lugging that claymore that was big as her over her head and moving almost as quickly as the beast.

Being outnumbered only made it more deadly. The beast pushed through every attack thrown at it like a relentless typhoon.

Akira commanded Gennai to leap as high as he could so she could gain a vantage point on the ceiling. When he nearly at the top, Akira suddenly felt the Child awkward lurch sideways and go into a descent. It was as if the air itself were pulling her off.

Gennai landed belly-up. Akira crashed face-down. She rubbed her head as she struggled to her feet. The instant her senses returned, she saw the blur of the beast just about to gore her.

Another shadowy figure darted across the chapel. They tackled Akira back to the floor, using their body as a human shield as the beast ran straight over both of them.

Akira struggled to lift her head. She had to squint to get a clear look at who was lying on top of her, the person who had saved her life.

It was Natsuki.

"Duran! Load Silver Cartridge!"

From the opposite side of the church, nowhere near where the beast had been attacking, Natsuki's wolf obeyed the command of his master and unleashed a hail of icy cannon fire from his shoulders. The beast dodged out of the way at lightning speed. The blast flew past its tail and struck the window of the church, shattering the stained glass Armageddon.

Light from the full moon suddenly spilled into the chapel, finally revealing the truth.

The silhouette of the beast's master was standing closely behind its back. She first looked like she was wearing giant wolf's claws over her arms, but she was actually clutching a pair of fighting sticks with the claws welded to the ends.

With solar orange and yellow armor patterns instead of lunar silver, with swords sticking out of its metal spine instead of cannons, the beast that had slaughtered its way through Fuuka Academy wasn't Duran. It wasn't a rogue Orphan controlled by Natsuki's shadowy foreign syndicate. Its morphology wasn't even canine.

It was Akane's tiger.


	8. Virgo

AKANE'S CRUDELY MODIFIED TONFA CREATED THE PERFECT RED HERRING EVEN BEFORE THEY WERE DRENCHED RED WITH BLOOD. Her teeth were gritting like a feral cat's. Her eyes were wild and bloodshot from dementia… or desperation.

Nao impulsively charged toward her, ready to slash Akane to pieces with claws of her own.

"You skeevy little bitch!"

A sacred white arrow struck the ground in front of Nao, causing her to freeze in her tracks.

Yukariko lowered her illusionary barrier, revealing she had been hidden behind a magic curtain several yards to Akane's left. Ishigami, the academy's art instructor, was standing beside her. He was smirking like a hyena.

"Ah-ah," Nagi's voice rang from behind a column on Akane's right. He walked out of the darkness along with Kazuya.

"I don't want you scratching up our nice kitty." Nagi winked at Nao.

"It would be wise if you held your place. Our beast can be rather violent if you threaten its territory," Kazuya said in a far less joking manner.

Akane's fists clenched tighter around the handles of her sharpened tonfa.

"Natsuki, what's going on?" Mai asked. Her head was spinning with confusion.

"Agent Kuuga, Searrs Foundation," Natsuki formally introduced herself, dropping her guise as a simple transfer student. "We've been keeping an eye on the outcome of the HiME Festivals for the last three hundred years. We came in to clean up the Diet's mess after they couldn't handle it themselves. This is the first time we've been able to intervene directly now that we have a HiME of our own." She shot Mai a small telling smirk.

"Wait a minute…" Nao said, turning her attention from Akane to Natsuki. " _You_ left the note with my mom? You dragged me out here to use me as bait for this rabid thing?"

"I left the note," Yukino said with a look of guilt lingering in her eyes. "But I never meant to get so many of you involved. It's not supposed to happen like this."

"What, so you can just pick them off one at a time?" Natsuki barked back. "I'm the only one you're after! Nao would be lying in a pool of blood right now if I hadn't leaked your damn note!"

"Relax, darling," Ishigami said quietly to Yukariko. "We'll just treat these girls to a bigger party than we had planned. Torn jugulars for everyone! It will all be over sooner this way."

Yukariko clearly shivered at the notion. Akane instinctively lowered her head so no one could see her expression.

Natsuki glanced to each of the HiME standing behind her. Each one wore the same baffled, vacant, and horrified look on her face. The typical look of innocents caught in the crossfire of a war they didn't even know was being fought. Even the bull-headed Akira seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Don't you guys get it yet?" Natsuki broke through to them. "I didn't come all the way here to kill you! I've been trying to _save_ you!"

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Yukino asked. "Running away like you did just made you look more suspicious."

"I was just as much in the dark as you were," said Natsuki. "I needed to find out _who_ was setting me up before I could drop my cover to expose them."

She gave the HiME the time they needed to glance at one another and take in everything that was happening. They seemed to clear their minds and come to an uneasy agreement, at least for the moment.

"Good, we've got that one straightened out. Now can we just put how much we hate each other on hold for a minute so we can stop this mess? I promised a cute little blonde girl with a great singing voice I'd come back alive so she doesn't have to worry about becoming a HiME," Natsuki said in an optimistic tone. "And I've got her nosy blue-haired bodyguard I still need to beat in ballistics," she jealously added.

Natsuki turned toward Kazuya again, her voice becoming cautious and cold.

"So this is the form you chose for yourself. What made you do it?"

Kazuya smiled lovingly in response.

"My precious Akane made the decision for me."

He softly placed his fingers on Akane's chin so she could face him. His lips aligned with hers as he spoke, while his eyes shifted spitefully toward the other HiME.

"The day you confessed to Kazuya in the bamboo forest was when I knew you were the right one. You told him you didn't care what happened with all these Orphans and the fate of the world. All that mattered is that you were safely with him. That's just the kind of thinking I'm looking for in a wife."

"It was all rather easy for us," Nagi added. "Harimau rips out a few necks, Akane uses her wolf claws to put on the finishing touches, and Yukariko warps reality a little bit so nobody knows Akane was ever there. Phobia and prejudice fills in the rest."

"You cheap bastard!" Shiho yelled. "Keeping your favorite in the dark from the rest of us and making us turn against Natsuki! You were trying to kill two birds with one stone by playing us like paranoid idiots!"

"And how well you played the part, my dear," Kazuya chuckled in reply. "I just wish I could have delayed raising the curtain a little bit longer, until my betrothed was ready for her final act."

Yukariko remained in stoic silence. She hadn't taken anyone's life by her own hands, but cleaning up after Akane's rampages, aiding in the plot to frame Natsuki, and almost leading the beast's next victim to her gruesome demise were more than enough sins for her to carry.

"This guy has been playing all of us since the stone age," Natsuki said to the group. "Twenty thousand years and he still hasn't found his booty call."

"How can you do this, Akane?" asked Mai. "You've always been such a close friend with everyone. We were worried sick when you went missing. You're not really like this!"

Akane hesitated with grief, before she answered back like an animal unchained.

"That's just like you, Mai! The amazing heroine who was lucky enough to wind up with Kagutsuchi as her Child!" she bitterly roared. "You're always there to tell everyone right from wrong and you could beat any of us without breaking a sweat! Some of us have to claw our way up just to survive, and we still don't get to be invincible like you! You never really had to worry about losing your loved one until the cancer got him! Yukariko told me maybe this is God's way of teaching you what it feels like to be the rest of us!"

Akane sighed with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She instantly regretted putting those horrible words out in the open. Her voice became desperate and shrill as she continued speaking. Tears began rolling down her checks.

"But would you still be so honest and noble if you were in my position? If Obsidian Lord came to you and told you he could bring Takumi back as his host and you'd never have to worry about losing him again if you vowed to protect him, what would _**you**_ do?"

Mai hung her head in silence. She didn't want to admit what her answer would be.

And then they all knew the truth. This wasn't simply the act of a faceless underground sect tearing apart its enemies. There was no evil invading power here. There were no soulless mass murderers scheming together. The killings had been brought on by the purest and most dangerous motive: Love.

Kazuya draped his arm around Akane's shoulders. He rested his nose against hers so their breath intertwined in a tiny whirlwind, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Akane, let's go," he said. His voice was comforting and manipulative at the same time. "This is hurting you too gravely. You can strike when the time is right."

"I'd say we've had enough surprises for one night." Nagi whistled and crossed his arms behind his head. "Ishi, tell your babe we need to split."

Yukariko glanced toward Nagi in offended disgust.

"He means well, Yukariko," Ishigami whispered in her ear, translating Nagi's words in a more respectful but still shady manner. "These lambs can keep their lives until the king says otherwise."

Yukariko smiled in temporary relief, but Akane never stopped looking exhausted.

Akane, Hari, Kazuya, and Nagi walked together behind the pillars holding up the chapel. When the HiME team tried to follow them, they found themselves surrounded by yet another illusion. Imaginary copies of Yukariko's Child formed a circle around them, a ring of twelve identical unicorn heads glaring down on them.

When the chilling mirage faded, the beast, Akane, and all of her dark conspirators were gone. The only ones still in the church were the gathered HiME.


	9. Libra

SPENDING TIME WITH YUUICHI DIDN'T HELP PUT SHIHO AT EASE THE WAY IT USED TO. The stress of the HiME Festival constantly racked her emotions, and the fact Yuuichi had chosen her over Mai left her constantly blaming herself after seeing everything Mai had gone through.

Still, sharing a bench with Yuuichi was the closest thing to a peaceful moment Shiho had known for a while. The clear starry sky twinkling above the glass dome of the academy solarium. The sound of crickets in the grass outside. The gentle rhythm of Yuuichi's heartbeat as she closed her eyes and nestled her head against his chest. And the silhouette of a metal-plated tiger lurking behind them in the shadows.

Shiho was instantly pulled out of her reverie when she heard that fear-inducing metallic shuffling sound. She knew it was kill or be killed when Hari stepped out from behind a stairwell and into the lights, baring his fangs toward his next two victims.

"Shiho, what the hell is that thing?" Yuuichi gasped.

Shiho stepped forward to confront beast, glancing over her shoulder nervously.

"I'm sorry," she said back to Yuuichi. "I didn't want to get you wrapped up in any of this, but I'll protect you. Please forgive me."

Little did she know, Akane had been forced to say those very same words to Kazuya an eternity ago.

Shiho depended on Yatagarasu to do all of her fighting. Her only weapon was the magic flute that controlled him. The first melody she played on her Element summoned her Child into existence. The second was a strange sound she had never recited until now, a distress call she had developed with the rest of the HiME after their first confrontation with Akane. Anyone partnered with a Child would be able to hear it.

Shiho mounted Yatagarasu's back and commanded the giant crow to take to the air. Yatagarasu swooped toward his natural predator, clashing against Hari with the talons of his single massive foot. Akane watched the fight from the rafters of the glass dome, a dark figure standing against the night sky. The veins in her eyes pulsed with the same angry red glow as the HiME Star.

Hari pounced several yards into the air, slashing with both of his front paws. Yatagarasu veered out of the way and streamed past the tiger, curving back through the air to make a return attack. A long, focused laser shot out of his beak, cutting through the solarium floor like a buzz saw. Hari dodged the beam and roared in rage.

The other HiME arrived just in time to see Shiho being brutally defeated.

The bladed motor mounted to Hari's chest began to whir. The vortex of wind caused Yatagarasu to stagger in flight, making him easy prey for Hari's ambush.

The tiger jumped in the air again and swept past Yatagarasu's wing. The blades on Hari's back slashed through the open feathers, serrating the flesh and destroying the machinery. Hari curled sideways, swiping Yatagarasu with his claws and flinging the crow back into a wall. The crash landing sent Shiho rolling across the floor squealing in pain.

Yatagarasu thrashed on the ground, helplessly trying to balance himself with his broken wing. Hari descended on him in a fit of murderous starvation. Hari bit into the giant crow's throat, cranked back its elongated neck, and decapitated the terrified creature in a grisly explosion of emerald blood.

The arriving HiME covered their eyes and their mouths as Yatagarasu's convulsions abruptly stopped. His body turned cold and black. Hari dropped the amputated bird head out of his jaws as if it were a bundle of broken metal scraps.

As punishment for letting her Child lose his head, Shiho would now be doomed to losing hers.

Yuuichi clutched his suddenly ailing heart. Shiho gathered herself from the wreckage and ran to his side, holding out her arms to catch him in his fall. She nearly stumbled over herself when she reached him. After all the time they had spent dancing together and playfully lounging next to one another during the school picnics, she never realized how heavy he was.

Yuuichi struggled with his head in Shiho's lap, sputtering her name. Shiho pleaded with him not to go.

Mai slowly stepped toward them with a look on her face that said she was living her worst nightmare for the second time in her life. She collapsed to her knees on Yuuichi's opposite side, joining in with Shiho's pleas.

Yuuichi gasped a final time, and died in Shiho's arms.

Akane leapt down from the ramparts and landed in an empty corner of the solarium. The crazed look on her face buried her compassion.

Kazuya and Nagi appeared closely behind Akane. Yukariko and Ishigami dropped the illusionary barrier that had made them invisible.

The two parties stared at each other in a moment of silent, hateful tension.

Chaos erupted in the Fuuka solarium. Duran, Julia, Diana, and Gennai joined against Hari. Akane crossed Elements with Mikoto. Yukariko aimed an arrow for Natsuki's back. If any of the HiME or their Childs came close to Yukariko, she would suddenly appear on the opposite side of the building and a copy of Hari would flash through the air to disorient the attacker.

Hari sprang out of the way when Gennai tried to crush him underneath a flying leap. Julia tried to blockade him in a fence of neon web, but he scratched his way to freedom with ease. Diana covered him in a nest of thorns. He thrashed through the vines and escaped just as one of Diana's needles reached his plated hide. She managed to only get a partial drop of acid in his hind leg.

Hari ferociously clawed into the ground, intent on digging the elusive grub-Child out of her hiding place safe in the earth so he could make mincemeat out of her chitin.

Duran charged at Hari's side, smashing into him with such force that it left a large dent in his yellow armor. Wolf and tiger snapped their jaws at each other, roaring together as they tried to mangle each one another with their claws.

Just when Yukariko was about to let go of her string and put an arrow in Natsuki's back, the sound of weeping distracted her aim. Her eyes glimpsed to the side, where Shiho and Mai were huddled over the fallen Yuuichi. They were suffering more than any poor human soul should. Not as enemies, or even as jealous rivals, but as two women who could only share their misery as they both lost a loved one.

Yukariko's fingers were shaking, but Heaven gave her the strength and courage to string her arrow true. She regained her aim, closed her eyes, clenched back her tears, and let divine judgment fly loose from her bow, fully knowing she was condemning an innocent girl to her doom. She only prayed the scales of justice would take pity on the damned.

The arrow struck its mark flawlessly, in Hari's dented left flank.

Hari screamed. Akane gasped. The defending HiME collectively froze in shock. Nagi's face washed over with a look of combined confusion and anger.

"What are you doing, you stupid nun?" he yelled toward Yukariko. "This wasn't part of the deal!"

Yukariko answered him by planting a second arrow straight between his eyes. Nagi was dead before he hit the ground.

"Yukariko, dear, there's no need for this," Ishigami implored. "I know you don't like having to do this, but it will all be over soon."

"I'm sick of hearing that!" Yukariko shouted in sorrow. "I'm finished with this heresy!"

Yukariko strung a third arrow through her bow. With sorrowful trepidation, she aimed for her jaded lover's heart.

"But why?" Ishigami said. "What do you hope to accomplish this late in the ceremony?"

"What I should have done before all of this started!" Yukariko said. "I don't want to be the high priestess of the world, or Akane's advisor, or any of the 'great things' you have planned for me if this is the price we have to pay!"

"What's wrong with you? You can't be having second thoughts when we're this close to winning it all!" Ishigami said.

Overwhelmed by remorse, Yukariko lost her aim. She couldn't bring herself to fire the final arrow. She couldn't kill Ishigami by her own hand.

But there was a higher power she could surrender him to.

"Saint Vrus," she whispered with a knot in her throat. "Inquisitor Mode."

Her Child's body opened in the shape of angel's wings just behind Ishigami. He stared up in horror as Vrus's armor closed around him, shutting like the spiked doors of an iron maiden. The screams that escaped Vrus's hollow shell were loud and agonized, but brief.

Vrus froze like a stone Knight piece on a giant chess board, and crashed over on his side. The bow cracked in two in Yukariko's hands. The arrow impaling Hari changed to the color of slate, becoming another one of the armor quills sticking out of his back.

The person Yukariko loved the most—despite all of his sinister misdeeds—was gone. Her gifts as a HiME were gone. This must have been how Adam and Eve felt after they had eaten the Apple and realized they were naked.

Hari's pain and exhaustion began reflecting back on Kazuya. The boy collapsed to his knees holding his chest. Akane ran to his side to help him back up.

"End it, Akane," he said in a tiny voice, barely getting it out over his painful gasps.

Akane glimpsed into his eyes as he struggled. They weren't the empty black eyes of the "Kazuya" Obsidian Lord impersonated, but the gentle eyes of the Kazuya who had become a prisoner of his own mind. The one she had given up everything to protect. His dwindling life force was causing Obsidian Lord to lose his influence.

"Kazu?" Akane blinked, seemingly coming out from under a cloud of her own.

"Just end it before I lose control again!" Kazu shouted, forcing himself to get the words out in the short time he could manage. "You've done enough already!"

"But this is the only way we'll ever be together!" Akane cried.

"And then what?" Kazuya winced. "Kill everyone some alien asshole tells us to and pretend like we can just live happily ever after? I don't want to live with this much guilt on my hands! I can't bear to see _you_ live like this!"

The wounded and weary Hari continued his attack. Desperation was making him even more savage. He sent Duran yelping and sliding into the wall. He swatted Julia away like she was a flea. He collided with Gennai with the force of a comet and sent Akira sprawling. He leapt off of the slags Mikoto summoned from the ground and knocked the giant sword out of her hands. Survival was the only thing he had left. Half crazed, half dying, he mowed through Diana's vines and charged straight for a helpless Yukino.

" _Stop it!"_

Hari stumbled out of his sprint in agony and collapsed to the floor well before Akane's desperate cries reached his ears. He was too weak to go on.

Akane left Kazu and solemnly approached her Child. The HiME watched for what she would do next. Some of them stood on the alert with their Elements drawn, ready to resume the fight if Akane so much as flinched in the wrong direction. Others waited with their arms at their sides and their heads low, sharing her grief and offering her their sympathy in inevitable silence.

Akane opened her mouth to speak to the others. Her voice was barely audible, like a tiny gale of wind left behind at the end of a massive destructive tornado.

"I'm sorry for being such a screw-up. I'm so sorry."

Hari grew slightly stronger—only enough to playfully flop his tail against the ground—as Akane kneeled over him to comfort him. His once fearsome growl was only a sickly wheezing sound emanating from his broken mechanical lungs.

"It's okay, Hari. You did your best," Akane said quietly. "Now let's give everyone else a shot."

She gently stroked Hari's forehead with one hand. With the other, she held out one of her tonfa, so the ends lined up with both of their necks.

"No, Akane!" Kazuya screamed. "You're everything to me!"

Akane ignored him. The club rotated sharply on its mechanized handle like a windmill blade with claws attached to either end. One side sliced an energy cord in Hari's throat, mercifully putting the beast out of its misery. The other side sliced through Akane's throat.

Hari became a crumpled heap of metal, his armor changing gray as the life left him. Akane landed with her hand still draped over him. A mother cradling her child in death.

Kazuya howled in rage, smiled in peace, and joined the other corpses on the floor.

If any of the HiME believed the Festival was over, their relief was short-lived. The entire solarium began to shudder in an earthquake. The ground split in two, releasing a vent of black stream from an unknown place deep below Fuuka Academy's foundations.

Kazuya's fallen form resonated in purple. The aura left his body, combined with the smoke, and gradually molded into a massive solid form.

The smoke cleared. Hovering in the air was a single black eyeball with a pair of swords emerging from the top and bottom lids. His mere presence seemed to bend space-time, changing the night sky to a hazy shade of violet. The HiME Star burned so brightly that it was nearly half the size of the moon.

Most of the HiME cowered in terror before this unearthly being. He was beyond anything they could ever imagine in their most lucid hallucinations. But for Natsuki, it seemed all too familiar. She remembered one of the last entries written by her mother.

" _Obsidian Lord. An extraterrestrial lifeform believed to have landed on Earth in the late Paleolithic era. He has used the Festivals as a means to find an ideal mate so he can reshape the planet to his own vision. All of his previous wives have been either a temporary affair or ended going against his wishes. No efforts to destroy him have ever been successful. He always uses a human male host as his physical form, and if that host dies, he'll transfer himself to the next closest male. He is immortal in his parasitic form, but he may lose his immortality for a brief period if something were to happen that forced him into his native physical form."_

"Natsuki," Shiho said as she finally lifted her head from Yuuichi's sleeping face. The sadness in her eyes was fading, turning into a bitter look of revenge. While Mai remained beside her sunken in grief, Shiho looked at Obsidian Lord straight in his eye with the harrowing glare of a woman scorned.

"Do you know what to do about this thing?" she sneered.

"I just might," Natsuki replied.


	10. Scorpio

MIKOTO KNEW HER ROLE IN THE FESTIVAL BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE, BUT EVEN SHE DIDN'T KNOW THE WHOLE TRUTH. Her sword was the temporary shell of Obsidian Lord until he chose a suitable vessel made of flesh and blood. She was simply the delivery girl. She didn't even know where she was delivering it to, or why. That part would be handled by other members of the First District when the time was right, and it wasn't something she needed to be concerned with. All she had to do was protect the sword with her life.

The old temple monks with their veiled threats and their feigned kindness told her nothing would happen to her brother just as long as she fulfilled her simple, harmless duty. Reito would never have to know about his sister's ties to this depraved ritual. He'd never have to find out how close his life almost came to an end at the hands of First District assassins. In Reito's eyes, Mikoto was just a quirky girl with a special affinity to the family heirloom and a knack for staying out late at night.

The First District certainly knew how to keep their princesses motivated.

Becoming friends with Mai had made her lose track of that duty. After being part of all the grief Mai had gone through, she honestly forgot her own part in Obsidian Lord's awakening. The wool the First District always left over her eyes obscured most of her vision, while the tears she had shed after Takumi's death made her completely blind. A flighty girl by nature, she simply never connected the dots. It never truly occurred to her she was fighting the very being she had helped put into power ever since that night with Akane in the chapel.

And because she was distracted, there was a second, far more sinister role intended for her that she never could have known. A secret so dark and deadly that it would tear her friendship with Mai apart. Something she would have no control over if certain conditions were met and she was called to fulfill that role.

She was Plan B.

Under the otherworldly nebulous sky, Obsidian Lord narrowed his single menacing eye toward Mikoto. She felt the horror grip her the instant their gazes met.

The wrath of the Earth reached up to grab her paralyzed ankles. An aura of darkness grew over her from her toes to her head. Tower after tower of black rocky spires violently erupted around her as she lifted her claymore off the floor.

Mikoto became a dark, foreboding figure even under the brightest of lights. Malice itself given feminine form.

The black spires grew higher than they ever had when Mikoto used her Earth-changing powers as a normal HiME, and then they started to _move_. From underneath the dangerous rocky formations emerged her Child: A massive red ogre covered in the spires and carrying a jagged mace in its three arms. Miroku.

This cursed form of Mikoto was a pure monster. She lacked Akane's compassion—making the HiME more fearful for their lives. She lacked Akane's reasoning and intelligence—making Obsidian Lord more enraged for having to resort to these measures.

The three apocalyptic forces aligned. Mikoto stood on the ground brandishing her mighty glowing claymore. Miroku hovered in the air behind her holding his brutal club. Behind him, Obsidian Lord loomed over them all with hatred burning through his iris.

Obsidian Lord spoke in a terrible voice that could split the Earth itself.

" _Now eliminate these false brides, my HiME."_

Miroku slammed his club to the ground, causing more spires to appear and force the HiME to scatter. Mikoto ran screaming toward the person who had caused this brilliant plan to fall apart—Natsuki.

Mikoto mindlessly roared in revenge even time she swung her sword. Natsuki barely dodged each attack as her eyes grew wide with terror. She tried to fire off her Elements only to have the two ice pistols slashed out of her hands, nearly taking off both of her arms in the process. Mikoto plowed into Natsuki's gut with the edge of her shoulder, making Natsuki double over in pain.

Natsuki was backed into one of the massive dark crystals with nowhere else to escape. Mikoto roared again as she lifted the volcanic claymore over her head. The blade descended in an arch to cleave Natsuki in two.


	11. Sagittarius

" _All women are the same color when the candle goes out."_

\- Mani, _Brotherhood of the Wolf_

" _Because of the radiance of life_ _g_ _ently embracing my eye, I am not lonely. I gaze at the proudly smiling moon. Now, with your mysterious power, awaken me."_

\- Minami Kuribayashi, _My HiME_

* * *

"KIYOHIME!" SHIZURU CALLED OUT FROM THE ENTRANCE OF THE SOLARIUM. Another earthquake started, causing Mikoto to lose her footing and miss Natsuki by a mile. Slithering gray tentacles burst out of the floor near each of the HiME. At first they thought another swarm of Diana's vines were growing out of the ground, until they realized the flailing appendages all ended with serpent's heads.

Shizuru flipped through the air over Natsuki's head and landed crouching in front of her. When Obsidian Lord summoned more of his black spires to erupt around Shizuru and impale her, she spun her naginata Element in a circle and cut down the rocks like they were made of glass. When Mikoto and Miroku both tried to rush Natsuki in a pincher attack, Kiyohime arranged her necks together so they formed a solid bell-shaped barrier around Natsuki. After several failed attempts to break through the protective shell, Mikoto and Miroku both backed off heaving in frustration.

Kiyohime uncoiled her limbs and pulled the rest of her cephalopod body out of the ground. Shizuru checked on Natsuki out of the corner of her eye, noting the blank expression on her face.

"I apologize for causing you so much trouble, Natsuki," Shizuru said. Her heart was heavy and her expression was grim. "But you didn't really think I spent all those days locked in the shrine and disappeared every time an Orphan showed up just so I could watch the tea leaves grow, did you?" Her sadness faded completely, replaced by a mischievous grin. She was always a woman whose emotions could turn on a dime.

Natsuki saw she hadn't been the only one keeping secrets behind her lover's back.

Shizuru turned back toward Obsidian Lord and his subordinates, facing them without the slightest sign of fear.

"As a lady of good behavior, I made a vow never to use my curse in a way that could harm another human being. But if it's Natsuki's life at stake, then I suppose I'll have to play the part of the wretched lying villainess," Shizuru said with the tone of a courtly shrine servant. Then her voice changed into a low threat.

"No one touches her except me."

Kiyohime dueled with Miroku as Shizuru battled the enraged Mikoto. Mikoto swung, Shizuru blocked. Shizuru thrusted, Mikoto dodged in reverse. Shizuru's naginata clashed against Mikoto's claymore.

The serrated mechanical links in Shizuru's Element separated into a chain and twisted around Mikoto's sword. Shizuru twirled in one direction to disarm Mikoto, while Mikoto harshly yanked in the other. Shizuru's grace was outmatched by Mikoto's raw animalistic strength.

Sparks flew as the naginata chain savagely snapped into pieces. Shizuru lost her balance and stumbled over on her rear.

Kiyohime had considerably better luck keeping Miroku tangled in her necks. The rest of the HiME joined in to support Shizuru and keep Mikoto at bay. Sensing an opening, Natsuki stood beside her Child and pointed at Obsidian Lord.

"Duran! Load Golden Cartridge!"

The crosshairs in Duran's mechanical dog vision focused on the floating eye. A message appeared across his targeting system.

 **[PASSPHRASE CONFIRMED. ARTEMIS SYSTEM ENGAGED.]**

The magnetic artillery shell locked into place on Duran's back. The rising hum of a fusion generator escaped his vents as his armor began to emit a yellow tint.

A grid of red holographic eyes mysteriously appeared around Obsidian Lord.

The voltage suddenly went into a short circuit. Duran cowered in submission and screamed in pain like an invisible pillar of spikes had stabbed him through his armored hide.

" _Foolish women,"_ Obsidian Lord rumbled. _"Do you think this is the first time the harem has tried to rebel against me? I tamed all of your pathetic toys before I let you play with them. The only Childs that lack my limiters are Harimau and Miroku, and one of them has already lost its purpose."_

Mikoto plunged the end of her sword into the floor, channeling a black diamond so large that it tossed HiME and Child alike through the air like weightless rag dolls. Gravity brought them back down without remorse.

The HiME were sprawled on the rocky ground crippled with pain. Mikoto, Miroku, and Obsidian Lord hovered above them in a triumvirate of apocalyptic darkness, ready to crush them at any second. They were about to lose everything.

Natsuki didn't know why her mind went to the place it did as it floated listlessly between life and death. Maybe it was the thought of losing Shizuru. Maybe it was the realization of her own mortality. Maybe she had suffered a concussion in the stone blast and was slowly becoming delirious. Maybe there was a more hopeful reason.

The ruins of the darkened Fuuka solarium faded away. Natsuki found herself in a far off memory where she was sitting in the grass of the academy gardens in clear blue daylight. The only other person with her was Shizuru, innocently musing on the various struggles and rewards of life. It's what she liked to call one of Shizuru's "philosophical moments." Above them, a light breeze rustled through the cherry blossom trees with the tenderness of a kitten's mew.

" _Hey, Shizuru?"_

" _What is it, Natsuki?"_

" _Do you ever wonder why we fell in love?"_

" _What difference does it make? We shouldn't have to justify it any more than a man and woman wanting to be together."_

" _No, I don't mean it like_ _ **that**_ _. I mean, you're the butterfly everyone adores. I'm… an antisocial freak who winds up making everyone her enemy."_

" _Who knows? I guess opposing hearts just belong together sometimes."_

Natsuki glanced toward the wreckage of Hari. Akane's arm was still protectively draped over him, with her limp hand dangling near the dented gap in his armor. Her lifeless fingers almost seemed to be shielding the dim sparks that were still flickering inside the Child's motor fan, like tiny bolts of lightning trying to surge into a greater storm.

Natsuki's focus turned toward Duran. He was struggling to get on his mangled, barely functional feet. Along his spine, his ammo compartment was cracked open.

Memories of her mother's later theories and diagrams on Child physiology flashed through her mind. They were the roughest concepts she had only started to develop near the end of her work. She never had the chance to put her theories into practice, but it there was any hope they could work…

A vicious, man-eating tiger hidden behind the shadows of the full moon.

A distant wind that sounded like a wolf's howl.

Canine claws sewn on top of cat's paws.

" _Opposing hearts just belong together sometimes."_

Suddenly, it dawned on Natsuki. Akane had the right idea. She had just done everything backwards.

Natsuki painfully pushed herself up from the ground and shouted so the others could hear her.

"Yukino, watch after Mai, Shiho, and Sister Yukariko! Akira, keep Mikoto busy! Nao, Shizuru, cover me! I'm going to try something!"

She hobbled over to Hari on one leg and dropped herself at his body. She used Yukariko's fossilized arrow as a wrench to pry open the chest armor. She worked with what little her mother had been able to teach her and the few tools she had. "Child Taxidermy" hadn't been part of her job description.

Finally, Natsuki got the last engine mount free and was able to remove Hari's core completely. It didn't look promising, but with a little extra help the Child's heart might have one good charge left in it.

Natsuki carried the bundle of gears and blades over to the wounded Duran. She started frantically attaching parts in any places where they could fit. The wolf yelped and whimpered through the whole operation, until Natsuki pat him on the back and whispered to him. Not like a soldier with a piece of military hardware, but the way Akane would have talked to Hari.

"Sorry, buddy. I'll only put you through this once."

She resorted to using her Elements as caulking guns. A few enchanted ice pellets was the only thing she had for a sealant between Duran's fuel cells and Hari's ventilation. It was a rush job, but it would only have to hold for a few seconds.

Obsidian Lord watched over the closing moments of the bloody HiME Festival with growing anticipation. He gazed toward Yukino. Ah, that spectacled girl was commanding her Child to fight with all of the determination her shy, timid heart could muster, refusing to accept her fate was already sealed. She was so naive to think she could protect her three disgraced friends in her flimsy cradle of weeds and thorns. Miroku was simply toying with them before he squashed all four like bugs.

Just across from that hopeless sight was another even more pathetic. Gennai was toppled over in black crystal debris and struggling to hop back up. Akira was trying to hold Mikoto's massive sword back with her tiny two-sided kunai. The battle was going the way one would expect.

Kiyohime lifted her central head into his view. She was carrying Shizuru, Natsuki, Nao, and Duran on her scales. The three HiME were huddled in a row behind the wolf Child. Duran stood with Julia's spider webs securing his paws to Kiyohime's head and keeping him stabilized on his damaged legs. He had Hari's air generator haphazardly welded to his cannons.

For the first time in his existence, Obsidian Lord understood the emotion he had imparted on his victims so many times in the past: Mortal fear.

" _Duran!"_ Natsuki screamed with all the air left in her lungs. _"Load_ _ **Turbine**_ _Cartridge!"_

The barrels of Duran's cannons illuminated with a bright viridian light. The cannons fired a barrage of sparkling green lightning with the power of a winter hurricane. Miroku tried to dive in the way of his master to shield him, only to be eroded by the blast in a matter of seconds.

Millennia of loss, despair, and untold suffering lashed back at Obsidian Lord, shredding through his black heart like an unbridled beast.

Mikoto clawed at her temples and screamed as her eyes flashed like strobe lights. Her sword clattered to the ground and changed to a dull hunk of black iron. She came lifelessly crashing down near Mai's knees.

Obsidian Lord's alien form exploded in a blinding flash, throwing the HiME off their feet and into unconscious darkness.

When they awoke, the world was in a state of peace it hadn't known for thousands of years. They each sat up, blinking back to awareness as they glanced around. The Childs—both living and dead—had vanished without a trace. The bodies of Yuuichi, Kazuya, and Akane were left in the darkness awaiting proper funerals, while Nagi's had ceased to exist. The HiME Star was gone. The only thing in the sky was the new crescent moon.

Mai frantically crawled over to Mikoto and pulled her body across her lap. She shook Mikoto by the shoulders, never expecting her to awaken.

Mikoto tiredly opened her eyes. Fully restored to her familiar, friendly self, she looked up and said the only thing she could at a time like this.

"I'm hungry, Mai."

Mai threw her arms around Mikoto as the tears came freely streaming down her face. But for the first time since the Festival began, they were tears of joy.

Natsuki and Shizuru embraced each other as if it were the first time they had ever truly been together. Yukino, Akira, and Nao spoke lighthearted together, relieved that the horrors were finally over. Nao wanted to check on her mother. Akira told them she would be visiting her "extended family" as soon as she could, ninjutsu for returning to her clan to report they could finally rest at ease. Yukino was going to help Haruka with student council banners once the academy was fixed.

Shiho remained in a corner of the solarium by herself, pulling her knees up to her chin as she looked vacantly up at the sky.

Yukariko quietly walked behind her. She placed a comforting hand on the younger girl's shoulder.

"Are you alright, Shiho?"

"Yeah," Shiho whispered in a choked voice. "Yuuichi wouldn't have wanted me to go too crazy." Her mouth curled into a bittersweet smile. The corners of her eyes grew damp.

The HiME spent the rest that night sharing their experiences and consoling one another in the ruins of the solarium. There was one final thing they had to do before they could call themselves truly free from their fate and return to their own lives.


	12. Capricorn

" _Once there were oceans, endless emerald forests, filled with sounds of magic, once so long ago."_

\- Felicia Sorensen, _Once_ (but the instrumentation for that song totally sounds like Yuki Kajiura could have been involved, so it works)

* * *

YUKARIKO'S JOURNAL WOULD BE HIDDEN DEEP IN A WALL BEHIND THE CROSS OF THE LORD AND SAVIOR IN THE ACADEMY CHAPEL, LOCKED IN A COMBINATION BOX DECORATED WITH A PLAIN CARVING OF SAINT EUPHEMIA. That was how the remaining HiME wanted to preserve it. A Catholic church would be one of the last places any prying party investigating the history of a bloody Shinto ritual spanning centuries would imagine looking. But for the HiME themselves and anyone who had suffered closely with them, this place would hold a secret meaning that would be guarded and passed down for ages to come.

With Mashiro gone, this would be Yukariko's responsibility. Her repentance. She was the closest thing these girls had left to a mentor, albeit a very flawed one.

She had done it all for Wataru. He wasn't always the way he had become. There was a time where he was gentle and understanding, and so loving that Yukariko considered renouncing her faith for him.

Then came those trying times.

Members of another, less benevolent faith visited her shortly after the Orphans began appearing. She knew they were never going to offer to make her queen. Even if they had tried, she would have refused them at every turn. She had vowed to live the life of a humble servant, after all. Instead, she was charged with watching after this girl who was already on her way to becoming the young queen. She knew what would have to be done to secure the girl's throne, and Yukariko, although begrudgingly, agreed to those terms. Yes, she was allowing great harm to fall upon countless others, but she was also keeping Akane and Kazuya safely under her wing during the End Times. Was Noah evil for letting all of those other poor animals to drown in the flood when all he could do was save a single pair?

Wataru had his own ways of convincing her. He would spend hours toiling away painting the most beautiful landscape with the most dreamlike features. He would ask her what she thought of his work, and each time she would tell him how much she cherished it. And then he would say "This is the world we're going to help Akane create."

But not every pious man has the strength to stay the way he is. The temptation of power and control got the better of him toward the end.

The reason they had asked her to become Akane's guardian was for her blessed healing powers. If Akane or her Child were ever wounded in their crusade, Yukariko could pray to Saint Vrus to make them whole again. She thought that if she could heal any injury to Akane's body, maybe she would be able to heal Wataru's mind once all the violence was over.

At least the Lord had given her one chance to use her powers for good, when she helped Nao's mother recover from her grievous injuries.

Yukariko preserved everything she could from Natsuki's explanations, Midori's exhaustive investigations, Mashiro's surviving diary notes, and her own confessions. The lives of this era's twelve HiME, and the deaths of the people they loved. The names of every guilty member of the First District, as well as a warning that more could be waiting in the shadows for another chance to resurrect Obsidian Lord's twisted will. Memorials for all of the HiME from previous eras as far back as Yukariko could dig, celebrating Obsidian Lord's earlier victims as selfless martyrs who sacrificed everything to protect the people they loved. Centuries of pain and tragedy would be preserved here until another generation came to excavate it. This was the best the survivors could hope for.

Yukariko only prayed those who knew where to find her chronicles would learn from her mistakes and never repeat the tragedy of the HiME festivals again.

* * *

 _Author's note: Well that mashup worked pretty well. I might come back to this story and reimagine it as a My Otome AU called "The Beast of Garderobe" if I ever get bored._


End file.
